Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII (ファイナルファンタジーVII Fainaru Fantajī Sebun, i.e. Final Fantasy Seven, stylized as FINAL FANTASY VII) is a role-playing video game developed by Square (now Square Enix) as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation, in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers, in 2009 on the PlayStation Network, in 2012 on PC Digital Download, and in 2013 on Steam. The game is the first in the series to use 3D computer graphics, featuring fully rendered characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, and was the first game in the main series to be released in Europe. Final Fantasy VII follows protagonist Cloud Strife, a mercenary who initially joins the eco-terrorist rebel organization AVALANCHE to stop the world-controlling megacorporation Shinra from draining the life of the planet for use as an energy source. As the story progresses, Cloud and his allies became involved in a larger world-threatening conflict, facing off against Sephiroth, the game's main antagonist. Helped by a large pre-release promotional campaign, Final Fantasy VII became an immediate critical and commercial success. It has continued to sell solidly—10 million copies were sold by May 2010, making it the best-selling title in the series. Final Fantasy VII was praised for its graphics, gameplay, music and story. Criticism primarily pertained to its English localization. It has retrospectively been acknowledged as the game that popularized the Japanese role-playing video game style outside of its home market, and has frequently ranked highly on various top game lists. The popularity of the title led Square Enix to produce a series of prequels and sequels for different platforms under the collective title Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. The Completionist Prologue Uploaded to both Normal Boots and YouTube on March 21st, 2014, the prologue episode marked the start of the long awaited Final Fantasy VII Month! For the next six weeks, all of The Completionist content will revolve around Final Fantasy VII, starting with the main game, moving to Dirge of Cerberus, to Crisis Core, to even Advent Children, all throughout the span of 7 episodes. The prologue takes a look at the history of Final Fantasy VII's influence, as well as the game's backstory. He notes how it was a natural evolution of the previous six Final Fantasy games, and explores the early efforts to make the game for SNES or N64 as opposed to PlayStation. Square realized that the PlayStation would be the better option due to the sheer size of the game and the PlayStation's use of CDs. He also talks about how Hironobu Sakaguchi used his mother's death in the storytelling. The theme of identity is explored thoroughly in this episode, explaining the backstories of Sephiroth and Cloud. Disc 1 On March 28th, 2014, a week later, Jirard released his second part of the series, all about disc one of the game's story. In the episode, Jirard has little "interviews" with a few other YouTubers, such as Egoraptor, Jesse Cox, Strippin from YOGSCAST, and Matt Patt from Game Theory. The main focus of this part of the review is the story and themes of loss. Jirard points out the meeting of Aerith and Cloud as further establishing character development and further forging the theme of identity. The loss the characters experience at the beginning of the game also sets the tone for a theme of loss, primarily with Aerith's death. The guests talk about the impression that the cinematics early on left on them when they first played the game. Except for Egoraptor, who has more negative things to say about the game than the other guests. Greg is able to piece together Sephiroth's true role in the story thus far, and his relation to Jenova. Disc 2 The next episode of the Final Fantasy VII Special took place a week later, April 4th, 2014, and dealt with the second disc of the game. The episode starts out focusing on the game's presentation and graphics. Most of the guests find the graphics impressive, mostly for the time, though Matt finds the blockiness of it all jarring, even back then. JIrard ultimately finds the new presentation and FMV make the game more cinematic than RPGs of the past, and the graphics add a lot of depth for him. He also brings attention to the more complex music, especially the famous One Winged Angel. The review then shifts over to the gameplay. Jirard compliments the materia system, even if he finds it annoying to grind sometimes. He's also fond of how the gameplay subtly ties in with the game's themes, and builds the theme's world. This part of the game deals with Cloud's failings as a hero, and the identify crisis that comes with it. His past is even explored in the form of flashbacks, allowing him to come to terms with who he is. But the birth of the Condor introduces a new theme of hope to brighten up the darkness of the story thus far. Cid's and Cait Sith's identify crises are also given closure. Disc 3 Shortly after, Jirard became sick and was unable to finish the next episode, so in its place, Star Fox 64 was uploaded, serving as a placeholder of sorts. The final episode of Final Fantasy VII was a week later, April 18th, 2014. This part gave focus to the endgame and completionist aspects of the game, as well as some negatives. Jirard and the guests praise the sidequests available to the player for extra stuff and closure with other characters before the final battle with Sephiroth. Though he talks about the limit breaks, he only goes in depth with Cloud's. Jirard admits that he feels the age has aged from a technical standpoint, even though it blew everyone's minds when it came out. He finds the optional sidequests can take obscenely long to the point where maxing out materia isn't worth it. Maxing everyone out is also useless, as Sephiroth gets stronger as the characters doe at a certain point. Some skills are also missable, and hard to get. The graphics also don't hold up well after 17 years. He also admits the plot is convoluted for those who are just getting into RPGs. As a whole, Jirard immensely enjoys the game, and finds it fun to talk about, like a novel. He finds the story and game as a whole to be expertly woven, and very emotional for the player. Although Final Fantasy VII comes to a close, Final Fantasy VII Month is still not over! There are still three more episodes of Final Fantasy VII Month: Crisis Core, Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus. Trivia *These episodes also have a different opening; Instead of the normal Completionist music, it is instead replaced by a variety of FF7 Remixes. *According to the Description of the Final Fantasy VII Prologue Video, Final Fantasy VII month started all because of a paper that Jirard wrote called Embracing Your Dreams - The Final Fantasy of Story Telling. * This is currently the only game that Jirard has split up into multiple Completionist episodes. * The episodes of Final Fantasy VII month are less comedic in tone than typical Completionist episodes. Category:The Completionist Category:The Completionist Episode Category:Final Fantasy VII Month Category:PlayStation Category:No Verdict!